Impersonal constructions from "summary" of An Introduction to English Sentence Structure International Student Edition by Andrew Radford
Impersonal constructions are an important aspect of English grammar. They are used to talk about general truths, laws, and ideas that don't involve people. They are also used to show politeness and respect in certain situations.- Impersonal constructions are a type of sentence that generally do not refer to any particular person or topic. They omit the subject and instead use passive voice, infinitive verbs or nouns used adverbially.
- Impersonal constructions can also be found in certain forms of idioms such as “it pays to” and “it goes without saying”.
- Using an impersonal construction emphasizes the importance of the action rather than who the agent is. It gives the verb a global sense.
- An impersonal construction can also take 3 distinct tenses: present tense, past tense and perfect. Examples of these are “it rains”, “it rained”, and “it has rained” respectively.
- As there is no possible subject to agree upon, an impersonal construction does not have agreement between its verb and its subject.
- When using an impersonal construction, note that the meaning of the verb may change depending on which tense you use. For example, the simple present "it snows" indicates habitual or usual occurrence while the past "it snowed" suggests a more specific event.
- To make sure your sentences are correctly formed and convey the right meaning, be sure to pay attention to both word order and tense when constructing an impersonal phrase.
